Health-and-hygiene appliances and compositions are used everyday, by people everywhere, to promote health and well being.
One such example of a health-and-hygiene composition—in this case a cleaning composition—is used to promote good hygiene. One of the most effective methods found to date for limiting the spread of communicable disease is through effective personal cleaning, particularly through thorough hand washing. Thorough hand cleaning includes not only washing often with a suitable cleanser, but also washing for a period of time long enough to ensure sanitary conditions have been attained. For example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that persons wash with soap for 10 to 15 seconds after first wetting their hands.
Many soaps and other detergent cleansers can provide the desired levels of hygiene if used correctly. These cleansers, however, are usually supplied to the public in bar or liquid form, and people, particularly children, often wash their hands in a cursory fashion, and therefore may not effectively remove dirt, grime, and/or disease-causing agents.
In one attempt to address such problems, liquid cleansers have been developed which change color after a certain amount of time spent scrubbing. Such cleansers may be expensive, however, and some are directed toward medical applications, such as surgical scrubbing applications. Thus, a need exists for a health-and-hygiene appliance that is moderately priced and can be adapted to encourage desired scrubbing times, even when used by children.
Another problem experienced with cleansers today involves difficulties in handling the cleanser as well as the unsightliness around the sink area caused by the cleansers themselves. For example, when using a bar soap, not only can the bar itself become unsightly as it is used slowly over time, but soap residue can build up on the soap dish or tray and the sink itself, causing an unsightly mess. Bar soaps are often slippery and difficult to hold onto when wet. Liquid cleansers also can cause problems. For example, inadvertent release of excess cleanser from the dispenser can lead not only to soap building up in and around the sink, but also on the bottle itself, causing the bottle to become slick and difficult to hold as well as messy. Furthermore, such release of excess cleanser may be wasteful, in that more cleanser is dispensed and used than is necessary for effective cleaning. Liquid cleanser dispensers may also become clogged, due to build up of liquid at the dispenser outlet. On continued exposure to air, such build up at the dispenser outlet may harden, further contributing to dispensing problems.
As such, a further need exists for a health-and-hygiene appliance—in this instance an appliance comprising a cleansing formulation—that can be delivered to the consumer in a form which can provide the desired cleaning action without causing untidiness in or around the sink. A need also exists for an appliance that can deliver a pre-selected amount of a cleaner in a precise dose.
Expanded foam is a material which has been used to produce a large variety of articles. For example, expanded polystyrene foam has been used to form packing material and light-weight disposable articles such as plates, cups, serving trays, etc. Recently, foams have been developed which are more environmentally friendly, i.e. biodegradable, than the petroleum-based foams of the past. In certain instances, these biodegradable foams can include a destructured starch.
Destructured starch is starch which has had the crystalline structure destroyed and has become thermoplastic in nature. A starch can be destructured by various methods involving combinations of pressure, heat, and mechanical work in the presence of plasticizers and/or destructuring agents such as urea and alkaline hydroxides. For example, starch can be heat treated above the glass transition temperature and melting points of its components, generally above about 120° C., in the presence of destructuring agents to become destructured starch. For additional information concerning destructured starch, see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,569,692 to Bastioli, et al. which is incorporated herein by reference as to all relevant matter.
Other such dispersible components that are dispersible in water or other liquids are known.
The present invention provides for a health-and-hygiene appliance comprising a dispersible component and a releasable component. Some or all of the releasable component is adjacent or proximate to the dispersible component. I.e., not all of the releasable component is homogeneously distributed throughout the dispersible component. When making such a health-and-hygiene appliance, some or all of the releasable component will be coated, sprayed, injected (e.g., within any internal cavity or hollowed-out portion defined by the dispersible component), or otherwise applied to the already-formed dispersible component (i.e., generally the dispersible component is substantially intact when the releasable component is applied). Upon said dispersible component dispersing or disintegrating in water or other liquid, the releasable component is released (note: at least some portion of the releasable component may release before, concurrent to, or after the dispersible component disintegrates or disperses in a liquid, such as water). The source of the water or liquid could be external to the health-and-hygiene appliance comprising the dispersible component and releasable component, e.g. from a spigot; or the water or liquid could be released from microcapsules incorporated into the dispersible component, the releasable component, or both. In one representative version of the invention, the releasable component is a soap or other cleansing formulation deposited on, coated on, sprayed on, or otherwise releasably associated with, a dispersible component (such as an expanded, water-soluble foam material). The volume or size of the dispersible component, and the amount of the releasable component associated with the dispersible component, may be selected so that a pre-selected amount of soap or cleaning formulation is released and substantially available for cleaning in a single use. That is, in a single use, and on contact with water or other liquid, substantially all of the dispersible component is dispersed or disintegrated, and substantially all of the releasable component is released and available to a user of the appliance. For example, for children, the dispersible component might be fashioned into a sphere or other shape (e.g., an animal, kite, animated character, or other shape attractive to children) that is easily handled by children. The amount of the releasable component, in this case a cleanser, can be selected to correspond to the amount of cleanser effective for its intended purpose. Furthermore, this same version of the invention may include characteristics that help the child know when he or she has washed his or her hands for a specific duration (e.g., the 10-15 seconds identified above). E.g., the releasable component, dispersible component, or both may be formulated to contain a color-changing ingredient adapted to change color after 10-15 seconds or so, thus providing a signal to the child that hand washing is effective and complete. Such color-changing dyes, such as thermochromic dyes, are known and can be purchased from various vendors (see Description below; see also co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/155,353, entitled “Color-Changing Composition Comprising a Thermochromic Ingredient,” filed on 17 Jun. 2005, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety in a manner consistent herewith). Or, alternatively, the health-and-hygiene appliance can be adapted to completely disintegrate after this duration, again providing a signal to the child that hand washing is effective and complete. Other sizes and shapes of the appliance may be selected for adults (e.g., a smaller sphere with an effective amount of soap coated on said sphere). Other representative versions of the invention are described in the following sections.